New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual New Japan Cup tournament is underway.
The winner of this year’s single-elimination tournament will earn the chance to face “Switchblade” Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This matchup will take place at their upcoming show, co-promoted with Ring Of Honor (ROH), G1 Supercard. The event takes place on April 6th and emanates from the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York.
This event took place on 3/20 from Shizuoka, Japan.
New Japan Cup Results (3/20)
Yuya Uemura, Manabu Nakanishi, and Yuji Nagata defeated Yota Tsuji, Satoshi Kojima, and Hiroyoshi Tenzan via submission.
Nagata’s Nagata Lock II onto Tsuju secured the tap out victory.
Ryusuke Taguchi, Mikey Nicholls, and Juice Robinson defeated Hikuleo, Chase Owens, and Bad Luck Fale via pinfall.
Mikey Nicholls manages to execute the Mikey Bomb on the hulking Hikuleo for the win.
Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, Taichi, and Minoru Suzuki defeated Tomoaki Honma, Michael Elgin, Toru Yano, and Togi Makabe via pinfall.
Taichi would manage to see Suzuki-Gun to victory with a Gedo clutch pinning combination.
Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, and Tetsuya Naito defeated Ren Narita, Hirooki Goto, and Kota Ibushi via pinfall.
Narita would get blasted by Takagi’s Pumping Bomber lariat, allowing LIJ the win.
EVIL and SANADA defeated Toa Henare and Colt Cabana via pinfall.
Henare eats another loss following a Magic Killer finisher.
TAKA Michinoku and Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Shota Umino and Hiroshi Tanahashi via submission.
Zabre Jr. does what he does best and stretches Umino into submission.
Tournament Results
Tomohiro Ishii defeated YOSHI-HASHI via pinfall.
A good showing for YOSHI-HASHI, but the “Stone Pitbull” would progress within the tournament after a Vertical Drop Brainbuster put his CHAOS stablemate away.
Kazuchika Okada defeated Will Ospreay via pinfall.
A close match with Okada once again showcasing that no one has a better 2.9 kick out than he does. He would emerge victorious over Ospreay following a Rainmaker.
This quarterfinal night was filled with CHAOS teammates battling one another. This trend will continue at the semi-finals when Ishii and Okada will meet.
